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Jane Harman: I Deplore NSA Leak
In a stunning break with her party, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Sunday that the New York Times damaged national security by revealing the National Security Agency's top secret terrorist surveillance program authorized by President Bush. "If the press was part of the process of delivering classified information, there have to be some limits on press immunity," Rep. Jane Harman told NBC's "Meet the Press." Moderator Tim Russert then pressed: "But if [the NSA leak] came from a whistleblower, should the New York Times reporter be prosecuted?" Harman countered: "Well, it's not clear it was a whistleblower. You have to prove that first."
Story Continues Below "If it's protected by the whistleblower statute, then it's protected," she explained. Harman then added, however, that CIA Director Porter Goss recently said that the Times' sources don't qualify under the whistleblower statute. "By the way, I deplore that leak," Harman declared moments before her comments on prosecuting the Times. "This is a very valuable foreign [intelligence] collection program. I think it is tragic that a lot of our capabilities are now [spread] across the pages of the newspapers." In hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, Vermont Sen. Pat Leahy praised the Times leak, saying it revealed an abuse of power by the Bush administration.
Editor's note:
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bush Administration
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